Search - Roches :: No Trespassing

50/50

Stephen Espinola | Brooklyn NY | 12/11/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is an EP which was released between the Roches' often-disastrous "Another World" and their truly great "Speak." The two pop songs are nothing special, ("No Tresspassing" is pretty, I suppose) but the other two songs are really neat.



"Knifed" is a short, stunning a capella piece, music public domain (by "anon", presumably from some earlier century). It's a vocal fugue generated entirely from a 10-note pattern sung forwards, backwards, scrambled, and upside down. One of my very favorite Roches pieces and, given that this EP usually sells for cheap, worth the price of admission.



"La Vie C'est La Vie" is another collaboration with Public Domain, this time words by Harlem Renaissance poet Jesse Fauset. It's sort of a recited/spoken variation on the J. Geils' "Love Stinks" theme. Simultaneously funny and heartbreaking. Worth a listen.

"